But You Can't Compare Apples and Oranges (Week 15)

Or can you...

In just 10 very short weeks (unless you were this impatient pregnant women, then it feels like a lifetime and a half!!) my little Butter Bean has grown from approximately .13 inches, or about the size of an apple seed to approximately FOUR inches, or about the size of a navel orange! How amazing is that?!?!?!

So what's up with baby this week:

"Continuing the march towards normal proportions, baby's legs now outmeasure the arms. And, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. Your fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though you probably still can't feel the movements. "

So what's going on with me:

This week was a pretty good one. I'm throwing up less, but taking more Zofran to keep the nausea at bay which causes other uncomfortable symptoms but at least it doesn't make me all anxious and worried that I'm going to need to throw up and not be able to get to a bathroom. The anxiety of which just makes me more nauseous of course! I think I'm about to figure out that it's because I'm not eating enough and often enough and not getting enough liquids. I'm trying to increase all of those. The Campbells "sippy soups" as I like to call them, the ones with the lid that you can drink instead of having to eat with a spoon have become my lifeline at work. They heat up quickly and I can eat them while I work, and I feel like I'm getting a little more substance than just pretzels or crackers.

This past weekend was awesome! I bought side tables and a coffee table off craigslist right before finding out I was pregnant. Well, needless to say I have not had the energy to sand and paint them since then, plus it's been like 400,000 degrees here... or raining, one or the other ever since. This past weekend, the temps were going to be in the mid 80's so Jay and I decided to tackle the project so that we could make the side tables stop randomly hanging out in odd places around our house. No really, one was stuck by our kitchen table in a corner and the other was in the corner in my craft room/office. I took pictures during the different stages, and plan to post that later in the week or this weekend once they have fully dried and I've put them in their rightful places. But to put everyone's mind at ease... I wore a mask while we both painted and sanded and I insisted on purchasing low odor, no VOC paint. The paint worked great other than being true to the reviews I'd read online which stated that it was watery. It took an extra coat and the coffee table which we painted black could have really used a third coat, but it's just for my house and I'm happy with it, so there!

I am solidly into maternity pants now, and so thankful for the ones my childhood BFF's sister gave me! I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have those to pull from. I'm enjoying the excuse to celebrate my expanding waist line instead of cursing it. Although I'm still keeping an eye on my weight. As of right now, and according to my scale at home, I have maintained the weight I was at when I found out I was pregnant, which means I've gained a lb since last week. As I start feeling better, which hopefully will be very soon, I will really need to start focusing on eating healthy foods. Right now I've been eating whatever sounds good and doesn't make me nauseous. A good friend told me that between 14 and 16 weeks was when she really started feeling less nauseous. Thank goodness!

Went to the psychiatrist on Friday. He said other than some heightened anxiety, he thought I seemed to be doing very well. And unfortunately heightened anxiety is a fact of life when I'm off my medication. Thankfully, I seem to be able to manage it at the moment. He doesn't see a need to see me for 6 weeks which is a good sign. He said that I might just be one of those lucky ones that find the heightened hormones from pregnancy actually help balance them out. We'll, see. Again we discussed the one week rule. Any drastic swings (up or down) that last for more than a week need to be reported to him. I did ask him about Postpartum Depression and whether I was at a higher risk because of my history. He said that because PPD is different than the chemical imbalance I have, I was at no higher risk than anyone else. But one of the positive things about having a depressive disorder is being familiar with the symptoms, I will see the signs of major depression a lot faster than someone who has never experienced it before and we already know what medication works for me. Unfortunately, that will mean I cannot breastfeed anymore which is very important to me, so we will just have to weigh the pros and cons at that time. But for now, I'm thankful for the sanity I seem to be managing to hold onto.

Jay is doing well. Settling in more and more to the idea of being a daddy. I think he's still scared out of his mind, but he's very excited too. He loves to rub my belly and talk to the baby. He always includes the baby when he tells me he loves me/us. I think he's a little jealous sometimes that I get to spend all day with the baby. I know he'll feel that way when I start feeling the baby moving more.

My next appointment with the Midwife is two weeks from Friday. It should be pretty uneventful, so Jay is going to skip it. My mom is going to come with me though, so that she can hear the heartbeat first hand. I am still very tempted to get a home doppler so I can listen to the heartbeat all the time, but I know in just a couple of weeks the baby will be moving and I'll be able to connect with him that way. Also, I've heard and the midwife confirmed that the noise from the dopplers and unltrasound machines doesn't sound good to the babies. When they get bigger you can see them moving around in the belly to get away from the doppler. So, I guess it's probably better that I don't get one.

Monday is my birthday, and I'm so excited to be sharing it with my Butter Bean, even if it means I won't be partying it up to make up for my not-so-awesome 30th birthday last year. Jay keeps asking me what I want for my birthday and I keep thinking that this little baby is by far the best gift I've ever gotten. Of course I didn't tell him that but instead told him I wanted a Very Bradley messenger bag that I can use as a diaper bag when the baby gets here, but still. ;-) Hehe. Here it is if anyone is interested. And I know you are!

That is one of Vera's newest prints titled Sittin' in a Tree and I already have the matching wallet. Still not exactly sure what we're going to do to celebrate on Monday but as my present my mom is taking me to the beach in a couple of weeks. It's just going to be a quick day trip but my childhood BFF is going with us and my bestie will meet up with us on the way down there! I can't wait! I can't think of a better gift than time spent with some of my favorite women and a look at the Atlantic ocean... and lunch in Calabash, SC home of Calabash shrimp! Woohoo! Can't wait.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far! I'll be taking a belly shot after work and will upload that later. Have a great day!